The National

The National are Cincinnati, Ohio, boys by birth and Brooklyn lifers by trade, and since 1999 they've been making the kind of slow-burning, rain-streaked rock that sounds best at 2 a.m. with a drink you probably shouldn't have poured. The band is built on 2 sets of brothers, twins Aaron and Bryce Dessner on guitars, piano and keyboards, and Scott and Bryan Devendorf on bass and drums, with Matt Berninger up front, his voice so low and lived-in it sounds like he's confessing to the bartender.

Berninger, Aaron Dessner and the Devendorfs started it, putting out the self-titled debut in 2001 on Brassland, a small label run by the Dessner twins and Alec Hanley Bemis. Bryce, who'd helped record that album, became a full member for Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers in 2003. Then they quit their day jobs, signed to Beggars Banquet, and made Alligator in 2005, which the critics fell over themselves to praise.

Boxer, in 2007, and High Violet, in 2010, are where the band became something bigger. Boxer is all restraint, Bryan Devendorf's clipped, restless drumming propelling "Mistaken for Strangers" and "Fake Empire", a slow march that keeps on swelling. It was also where Berninger's wife, Carin Besser, started writing lyrics with him. High Violet is huge and anxious: "Terrible Love" roars in from the murk, and "Bloodbuzz Ohio" is a pounding, homesick-sounding rush.

Since then the story has been steady growth. Trouble Will Find Me in 2013, with "Don't Swallow the Cap", "Graceless" and "I Need My Girl", got a Grammy nomination, and Sleep Well Beast in 2017 won them one, "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" cutting in with jagged guitar. I Am Easy to Find followed in 2019, and in 2023 came First Two Pages of Frankenstein on April 28, with Sufjan Stevens, Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers dropping in, and a surprise second album, Laugh Track, on September 18, mostly made in the same sessions.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.